Officials in Jefferson Parish approved a resolution Wednesday that would allow for a studies to be conducted on a planned coal terminal and rail lines.

The Jefferson Parish Council gathered for the meeting Wednesday to discuss and approve the resolution to study the coal terminal proposed by RAM Terminals, LLC. It will be built in Plaquemines Parish and could bring expanded rail lines and trains full of uncovered coal through several Westbank communities.

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Parish council members will now ask the Army Corp of Engineers to conduct an environmental study on the impact that the coal terminal, rail lines and trains could have in the area. Officials will also hold public hearings for areas that will be impacted by the proposed plans.

Resident Linda Ramil said that she and her neighbors have been dealing with the existing coal terminal for 15 years. She said that all the coal dust it leaves in the air and on their homes.

"It's polluting the river where we're going to get our sediment to do our restoration project," Ramil said. "Another coal plant that would be three times the size of this one is just unthinkable."

According Ram L.L.C.’s website, this new terminal would be located right next to a sediment diversion project the Army Corp is currently studying. The project is creating a canal off the river to funnel sediment into Barataria Bay for wetland restoration.

“The fact that this is going to be next to a major coastal restoration project – this project is not good no matter how you look at it.,” said Gayle Bertucci, a Gretna resident.

Parish President John Young sits on the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority Board. He says while the resolution can’t force the Amy Corp to do the environmental study, he says it is making a bold statement from the government of the state’s second most populous parish.

“You can’t build levees high enough. You have to restore the coast. That’s our horizontal levee so to speak,” said Young. “So you have to restore the coast and the wetlands if we’re going to survive as a state—if we’re going to survive as a community.”

Those who’ve been fighting the coal companies and those who are trying to keep their trains out of their communities fully agree with Young, they hope the Army Corps will too.

“I don’t think that anyone should really care that Gayle Bertucci has coal trains coming down the front of her house. But it should concern everybody that this is going to impact a coastal restoration project that we all need to survive,” said Bertucci.

In August, residents told the council they were concerned more trains, carrying uncovered coal through the community, would have an adverse affect on their health and property values.

"Holding both the study and hearing could slow down the Army Corps permitting process for the RAM terminal, putting a dent in the coal export industry's plans to increase shipment out of the Gulf Coast states," the CGCC states.

Jefferson Parish President John Young said that he plans to hand deliver the resolution to the Army Corp to get the "ball rolling" on the study.